Meetings
Transcript: Select text below to play or share a clip
[Rep. Matthew Birong (Chair)]: Maybe you're live. Alright. Thank you. Welcome back, everyone. It is about 10AM on Wednesday, January 28. We are continuing our conversations in and around alcohol policy, and we have, just added to our website. It is under, Mimi's name, alcohol bill. Just so nope. Where the which one? 655. Oh, 655. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Bill, what's the draft number for?
[Commissioner Wendy Knight, Department of Liquor and Lottery]: Oh.
[Rep. Matthew Birong (Chair)]: I heard if I heard his name is out. Oh, thank you. Pre introduction draft. Alright. So I just wanna make a note that that is something that is in drafting and on its way to us with a formal bill number. But when we speak to alcohol bill in air quotes today, it is gonna be that preintroduction draft. So, with that, we're welcoming commissioner Knight from the Department of and Lottery here to offer perspective on the bills that we're discussing this morning. So Good morning. Thanks for having me. Wendy Knight, commissioner
[Commissioner Wendy Knight, Department of Liquor and Lottery]: of the Department of Liquor and Lottery. I'll first start by talking about six five five, the what we call the technical correct technical corrections and housekeeping bill, which truly are technical corrections, very minor requests. The first one is to ask for a four year term for the board members instead of a three year term. They are staggered, but the reason is for some continuity of board members. There's a lot of the laws and regulations of the Department of Liquor are pretty complex. We're also looking for some consistency with the term of the commissioner. The commissioner has a four year term, so we're requesting that be a four year term. Next is the section two thirty. This pertains to the sale of alcohol for off premises, otherwise known as to go cocktails. There was a provision in there that had serving hours inconsistent with the serving hours that are in statute. So, it's not necessary in there, because they're already established elsewhere in statute. So, we're asking to delete that. The next section is two fifty two, which is the special event permits. We made some changes on that a couple years ago. There was an oversight when we left out that those permits need to have local control. And so we're essentially inserting that language in that because those permits require social control. Social control. Local control. Yes.
[Rep. Matthew Birong (Chair)]: Locally controlling the social environment.
[Commissioner Wendy Knight, Department of Liquor and Lottery]: Exactly. Precisely.
[Rep. Matthew Birong (Chair)]: So, just for clarity, we're approved by local control commissioners. That's like select
[Commissioner Wendy Knight, Department of Liquor and Lottery]: The towns. Yes. The town each town has a process for approving the liquor licenses that they have a statutory obligation to approve. So, essentially, we need that language to be inserted back in here because when we change the special event permit, the intent was not to change the local control, portion of that. The next section, two seventy five, solicitor's license. The first section we changed to have the language be gender neutral. The second section there, we changed to eliminate the requirement that the payment be sent by certified check made payable to the department or the state of Vermont. Now you can imagine why we have to delete this. Yes. Because we are now in the twenty first century and have an online licensing portal, and we do not require our licensees to send and mail in checks. We would like that to come I
[Rep. Matthew Birong (Chair)]: really appreciate that. Again. I've had a lot of people chitchat about
[Commissioner Wendy Knight, Department of Liquor and Lottery]: this Yeah. And this, as an aside, and I've said this repeatedly, and I will say it again, this is why we need not have specifics put in statute. Because when life evolves and industry evolves and businesses evolves, we're stuck with outdated wording in statute that we need to update. It's better to just let me decide how to do it. Joking, sort of. Have a process. Rule making, exactly. Rule making and regulations, and that's a much more nimble, responsive way of creating guardrails, as you can see. Again, general neutral language. I'm sure some people will come after me for that request. Then we have the sunset of the special venue serving permit. Again, this was an oversight, a couple years ago. We erroneously put in a sunset for that provision. This pertains to special venue serving permits. The issue was that we were specifying you could be a bookstore, you could be a museum, if you recall. And, yes, we had a retail establishment wanting to have a special venue permit, but we couldn't allow it because the language didn't specify retail. So we took out all of the specific types of establishments and said retail. And for some reason, that got put in as a sunset. Set. We're asking that to be refueled because that was intended to be a permanent change. So with that, the I'm just
[Rep. Matthew Birong (Chair)]: going into the way back machine in my brain right now. You know, there was some concern about that, just opening up access within that that style of establishment having these special bed fronts. Do you, off the top of your head, recall any instances where there was a issue with, like, over serving or anything of that nature as a result of these permits or this permissible At these, like, you know, these special event permits? Because I know some people were like, you're opening up access.
[Commissioner Wendy Knight, Department of Liquor and Lottery]: So I'm trying to understand your question. So before when we testified two years ago, obviously, the department's lens is if it helps to promote growth in the economy and make Vermont more affordable and it doesn't have a negative public safety implication, then we are supportive of it. And that was the rationale for that. I don't believe that we've gathered since then any number, any data that shows if there's been, violations, at retail establishments.
[Rep. Matthew Birong (Chair)]: Okay. I think that was like did a very meandering and unclear.
[Commissioner Wendy Knight, Department of Liquor and Lottery]: Yeah. We can certainly give you that data.
[Rep. Matthew Birong (Chair)]: Yeah.
[Commissioner Wendy Knight, Department of Liquor and Lottery]: But there was no concern We didn't have a concern that there would be a different, you know, set of circumstances at a retail store, whatever that might be, selling ceramics as opposed to selling books. Like, that didn't make any sense to have a distinction. But we can certainly give you an our data on any violations or, yeah, I guess that's the term. Any violations we've had at special venue permits.
[Rep. Matthew Birong (Chair)]: Mhmm. I think I was just more curious if there was any striking incident that popped to mind where there was an issue.
[Commissioner Wendy Knight, Department of Liquor and Lottery]: Not that I'm aware of. Okay. So, any questions on anything that I've covered thus far? The one other point I will make, we probably need to figure out where to include it, is the liquor liability insurance. There was a requirement for the Department of Liquor and Lottery and the Department of Financial Regulation to come back with a recommendation for that dollar threshold for mandating that licensed establishments get liquor liability insurance. It's the opinion of the department and the Department of Financial Regulation that we, basically, repeal that mandate. Because the marketplace is not showing sufficient, relief, and it's becoming very continues to be very unaffordable for the, liquor licensees to as to either obtain liquor liability insurance or to afford it. And so the idea and you can take further testimony on this, but I think that we need to put that in somewhere in the miscellaneous alcohol bill if you're gonna combine these.
[Rep. Matthew Birong (Chair)]: Yeah. No. We're definitely looking at combining the all the proposals that
[Commissioner Wendy Knight, Department of Liquor and Lottery]: And we can send you I mean, basically, we our recommendation is that you repeal that mandate.
[Rep. Matthew Birong (Chair)]: Okay. And when did we did that?
[Commissioner Wendy Knight, Department of Liquor and Lottery]: That was two years ago.
[Rep. Matthew Birong (Chair)]: Okay.
[Commissioner Wendy Knight, Department of Liquor and Lottery]: And we were supposed to the deadline for DFR and DLL to come with a recommendation for what that minimum liability amount, is is July 1. This year. Correct. I just wanted to make make note of that.
[Rep. Matthew Birong (Chair)]: Because I saw rep Boyden making a note for us to
[Commissioner Wendy Knight, Department of Liquor and Lottery]: Yeah.
[Rep. Matthew Birong (Chair)]: Take further testimony.
[Commissioner Wendy Knight, Department of Liquor and Lottery]: I know that you're taking testimony on some other, alcohol bills. I will just state in general that we have had conversations with all of the stakeholders, all of our licensees, about what they are seeking. In general, the department supports, again, as I said, changes to legislative language that help Vermont businesses grow, and get their product in front of, consumers and tourists and sell their product that doesn't negatively impact public safety, we are supportive of. As you know, the governor has been championing affordability for a long time and growing the economy, and we look at ways where we can support our licensees in that endeavor as well, growing their businesses. And so, we're not seeing anything that's been you're discussing that causes us concern. Some of these things make complete sense if we're looking to support Vermont manufacturers and other businesses. And I'm happy to give more detailed testimony as you work through the details on these bills. Okay.
[Rep. Matthew Birong (Chair)]: Yeah. You know, they can like I said before, we're really just, like, honing in on the ones that we've looked alright. Oh, Caught me. I should have another one. Now we're gonna continue to work on it and bundle into our miscellaneous out, although
[Commissioner Wendy Knight, Department of Liquor and Lottery]: Yeah. And I will say that, what I see here are discussions that we've been having for the last four years. So none of what I'm seeing is new. I've had various conversations with the stakeholders over the last almost five years, that I've been at the department. And these are same conversations. So I would urge us all to collectively work forward to make some relief for these, companies.
[Rep. Matthew Birong (Chair)]: Any questions for the commissioner?
[Commissioner Wendy Knight, Department of Liquor and Lottery]: Sorry, I missed your testimony.
[Rep. Matthew Birong (Chair)]: We got time. You wanted to start again?
[Commissioner Wendy Knight, Department of Liquor and Lottery]: No, thanks. It's okay. I can watch the YouTube video. Yeah. Alright.
[Rep. Matthew Birong (Chair)]: Well, we are just cruising along this morning. Thank you, commissioner.
[Commissioner Wendy Knight, Department of Liquor and Lottery]: And I appreciate your commitment to, hear the online lottery bill at some point soon, mister chair. Thanks.
[Rep. Matthew Birong (Chair)]: Well, we will certainly get that out of the draw.
[Commissioner Wendy Knight, Department of Liquor and Lottery]: Have a great day. Thanks for having me in. Thanks, Martin. I will return your coffee cup. And
[Rep. Matthew Birong (Chair)]: we are running ahead of schedule, so I don't know if we have the ability to start diving into June yet with our
[Commissioner Wendy Knight, Department of Liquor and Lottery]: That's alright.
[Rep. Matthew Birong (Chair)]: We'll hit the pause button for yeah. I realize we're moving along briskly. So, yeah, take us offline for fifteen minutes. And once all of our